Windows 7 pricing announced: cheaper than Vista (Updated)

Microsoft has revealed almost all the remaining information about Windows 7. …

Microsoft today announced Windows 7 retail pricing, upgrade information, launch details, and a preorder deal. The software giant has reduced the price on its most popular retail Windows product, the Home Premium upgrade version, by approximately 10 percent (this varies based on the market). In the US, this means a drop from $130 to $120, a savings of $10. For the Home Premium full version, the price drops from $240 to $200. Those are the only differences when comparing Windows Vista prices to Windows 7 prices after Microsoft made cuts in in February 2008 (compared to the ones announced in September 2006). The table below summarizes the slow drop in cost for Windows Vista and Windows 7 in the US:

Upgrade retail products

Windows Vistaas of 1/2007

Price

Windows Vistaas of 2/2008

Price

Windows 7as of 10/2009

Price

Home Premium

$159.99

Home Premium

$129.99

Home Premium

$119.99

Business

$199.99

Business

$199.99

Professional

$199.99

Ultimate

$259.99

Ultimate

$219.99

Ultimate

$219.99

Full retail products

Windows Vistaas of 1/2007

Price

Windows Vistaas of 2/2008

price

Windows 7as of 10/2009

Price

Home Premium

$239.99

Home Premium

$239.99

Home Premium

$199.99

Business

$299.99

Business

$299.99

Professional

$299.99

Ultimate

$399.99

Ultimate

$319.99

Ultimate

$319.99

Comparing the Windows Vista retail pricing at launch to the Windows 7 retail pricing at launch, the differences are much more notable. The Home Premium upgrade version has dropped $40 and the Ultimate upgrade version has dropped $40. The Home Premium full version has dropped $40 and the Ultimate full version has dropped $80. However, Microsoft has not touched the pricing for the Professional edition (previously called the Business edition). This might be attributed to the fact that in Windows 7, every edition is a superset of the previous one. That means that unlike Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 Professional will contain all the features that the Home Premium edition has, and thus Microsoft cannot justify a price drop.

Upgrading from XP or Vista with a retail copy

While these price changes are positive for consumers (none of the products has increased in price), they are rather disappointing for those hoping for much more aggressive price slashes given the current economic climate. Thankfully, retail pricing is typically used as a starting point; most users will not be buying retail versions anyway. Retail sales account for less than 5 percent of Windows sales, the rest of sales are via OEM. Some consumers will either grab an OEM copy via an online or in-store purchase, but most will be getting a copy of Windows 7 with the next purchase of their PC.

Windows XP users need to know that regardless of which edition they currently have installed (Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Media Center Edition) and regardless of which edition of Windows 7 they are moving to (Home Premium, Professional , or Ultimate), they will need to perform a clean install, whether they buy the upgrade or full version. The hassle of backing up applications and user data will fall on the user; a clean install will not back up anything. Using Windows Easy Transfer, users can copy their important files and settings to an external USB stick, external hard drive, or DVD, and then move the data back after the installation.

The installer will verify that XP is genuine and Windows 7 will have to be installed on the same partition as the XP installation. The good news is that Microsoft is allowing XP users to buy the cheaper upgrade version if they want to (Microsoft typically lets owners of the two previous releases of Windows to do this, in this case XP and Vista).

Windows Vista users can follow multiple upgrade paths to Windows 7. As was the case when upgrading from XP to Vista, you will only need to perform a clean install if you are going to a version that is lower on the food chain. For example, if you are going from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium, you would do a clean install. If you are going from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate, you do not need to do a clean install. When you switch to a higher version, you're adding on the existing functionality, but when you're going to a lesser version, you're taking away functionality, thus the need for a clean install.

Clean installs will also have to be performed when upgrading from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version, regardless of edition. Unless the user chooses to repartition or format the current partition, Vista's files from C:WINDOWS will be preserved under C:WINDOWS.OLD, just as when upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

As with Vista, each DVD includes the various editions. Unlike Vista, every edition of Windows 7 is a superset of the previous edition, so you will not lose any features when upgrading. Once you have some edition of Windows 7 on your system, whether you purchased it via an OEM or just upgraded from Windows XP or Windows Vista, you will be able to upgrade to a "more premium" version of Windows 7 by purchasing an upgrade key to unlock additional features, just as with Vista. This is called Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU). For example, you could start off with Windows Vista Home Premium, upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, and then later choose to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.

Windows 7 E: no upgrades for the EU

Both Windows XP and Windows Vista come with Internet Explorer, and the upgrade editions of Windows 7 were never tested to handle the installation of Windows 7 without Internet Explorer. Mike Ybarra, general manager of product management of Windows, told Ars that Microsoft had three choices for the release of Windows 7 E: delay the whole release of Windows 7 to make sure everyone gets the release of Windows 7 at the same time and without any upgrade problems, delay the release of Windows 7 just in Europe and have this market wait till Windows 7 E passes all upgrade tests, or don't offer upgrade versions at all.

Microsoft chose the last solution, and it's actually a pretty good one, for both Microsoft and consumers. Windows 7 E editions will be sold only in full versions: there will be no upgrade versions available in the European Union. The good news is that the full versions will be available at the upgrade price, though if history is any indication, they'll likely still be higher than the US upgrade prices shown above. Microsoft announced two weeks ago that it was shipping Windows 7 in Europe without Internet Explorer 8 installed in response to the EU's antitrust investigation of its browser with Windows.

Preorder Windows 7 cheaply

In select markets, Microsoft is offering its customers the ability to preorder Windows 7 upgrade versions at a significantly reduced price. This is easily the most aggressive pricing Microsoft has ever offered for Windows. The low preorder price will vary per country:

France and Germany: Windows 7 Home Premium (�49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (�109.99)

The deal includes select retail partners, such as Best Buy and Amazon, as well as the online Microsoft Store. This program begins Friday, June 26 in the US, Canada, and Japan. It goes on while supplies last or until July 11 in the US and Canada, and until July 5 in Japan. For the UK, France, and Germany, the preorder starts July 15 and runs while supplies last or until August 14. Microsoft was not willing to discuss the limits of the supplies, but a spokesperson did confirm to Ars that the reduced prices for the European countries will simply apply to the full version (as noted above), as upgrade versions will not exist in Europe. In short, these preorders will allow those in the UK, Germany, and France to purchase full versions of Home Premium or Professional, except without IE8, for a very low price.

Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program

Waiting to buy a PC until Windows 7 is released can be frustrating (especially given the upcoming back-to-school season), so Microsoft is making an upgrade offer similar to what it did for consumers buying XP but who wanted to secure a copy Vista: buy a Windows Vista PC as of June 26 and receive the equivalent edition of Windows 7 when it comes out. If the June 26 date sounds familiar, that's because it was rumored earlier this month via a leaked Best Buy memo (contra the rumor pointing to July 1 being the date). Microsoft will be offering the program globally until January 31, 2010 but OEMs can cut it off early if they choose to.

The offer will be available only from participating OEMs or retailers and encompasses Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Ultimate. For example, if you purchase a computer with Windows Vista Home Premium on it, once it is available, you will get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium to upgrade to. Further details will be available soon at windows.com/upgradeoffer and windows7upgradeoption.com.

Ybarra told Ars that Microsoft would not charge consumers for Windows 7 if they purchased a Vista PC between tomorrow and the day of general availability. He did admit, however, that OEMs can choose the price of the upgrade, possibly charging for shipping and handling fees. Furthermore, it will be up to OEMs to decide which computers the upgrade offer will be available on, so it's unlikely that low-end computers like netbooks or PCs on sale will have this offer.

Windows 7 in your language

Microsoft is promising that all major OEMs will have PCs with Windows 7 shipping in all language versions beginning on the day of general availability, October 22, 2009. However, the same cannot be said for the Windows 7 retail versions. On October 22, they will be available in 14 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Chinese (Hong Kong).

On October 31, the remaining 21 languages will become available: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian. This wait of just over one week is a big improvement over Windows Vista's launch: the wait between the initial launch in the US and all the languages becoming available was about three months.

This theme of "better than Vista" that we're seeing with Windows 7 is apparent in today's announcement as well: the release has better pricing and will be more rapidly broadly available. However, whether "better than Vista" will be good enough for consumers to switch away from their current operating system is up to the market to decide. That said, we're optimistic, as Microsoft is quite obviously listening intently this time around.

Update

A few readers have asked in the comments and via e-mail about retail pricing in other countries. While we begged for pricing in every country, a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars that only pricing for the EU and the UK were available:

The EU: Home Premium upgrade (�119.99), Professional upgrade (�285.00), Ultimate upgrade (�299.00), Home Premium full (�199.99), Professional full (�309.00), and Ultimate full (�319.00)

The UK: Home Premium upgrade (�79.99), Professional upgrade (�189.99), Ultimate upgrade (�199.99), Home Premium full (�149.99), Professional full (�219.99), and Ultimate full (�229.99)

Erm, I think its pretty simple if you filter out information for other countries, the analysis of declining prices etc. There are 3 versions, the retail prices are listed. The nested feature-sets make sense and is easy to understand.

By the way, does anyone know if the pre-order prices start at midnight pacific tomorrow or what? At a 50% discount it seems smart to nab one if you plan on having Windows 7, yes?

I only run windows in VMs now having transferred from Linux/Win to Mac/Linux but :1. The pricing reduction is good along with OEM pricing which will be better i assume2. It is NOT insanely complex. 3 editions in retail, 5 in OEM. Most customers don't know or care which version they get in OEM. Retail peeps know what they want.3. I still don't care for Windows or Office.

Windows 7 E editions will be sold only in full versions: there will be no upgrade versions available in the European Union. The good news is that the full versions will be available at the upgrade price.

49.99 Preorder for Home Premium isn't too bad. 149 for a full disk is too much. 119 is actually around the OEM price. No one here still buys a retail copy do they? What's the full version 7 OEM non preorder price gonna be?

Originally posted by stopher2475:49.99 Preorder for Home Premium isn't too bad. 149 for a full disk is too much. That's actually around the OEM price. No one here still buys a retail copy do they? What's the full version 7 OEM non preorder price gonna be?

This comment was edited by stopher2475 on June 25, 2009 13:36

It's an upgrade copy. And I went and got my hopes up and everything...

Originally posted by gekigangerv:I was hoping that Apple's pricing of Snow Leopard would've driven these prices down even farther.

Except the Snow Leopard pricing is only applicable to Leopard upgrades. Otherwise you'll probably have to purchase the full upgrade price along with a Macintosh machine, which combined costs a lot more then a copy of Windows 7, Upgrade or Retail.

Originally posted by gekigangerv:I was hoping that Apple's pricing of Snow Leopard would've driven these prices down even farther.

Why? Windows 7 is a much bigger release than OS X Snow Leopard.

Uh... no it's not.

Uh, it is.

Are you HONESTLY saying the are more people using OS X than Windows?

Are you HONESTLY saying that there are more people that will be buying OS X S.L. than Windows 7?

Who the fuck are you kidding?

I don't think he meant size in terms of number of people, but rather size in terms of upgraded/new features. Let's be honest, both 7 and snow leopard are performance and window dressing upgrades. In fact, by most estimations, 7 is what one of the Vista SP's should have been.

Originally posted by gekigangerv:I was hoping that Apple's pricing of Snow Leopard would've driven these prices down even farther.

Why? Windows 7 is a much bigger release than OS X Snow Leopard.

Uh... no it's not.

Uh, it is.

Are you HONESTLY saying the are more people using OS X than Windows?

Are you HONESTLY saying that there are more people that will be buying OS X S.L. than Windows 7?

Absolutely not, how is that relevant to Win7's price? I read warrens's post as "The differences between Vista and 7 are much bigger than between Leopard and Snow Leopard, leading to almost no decrease in price between Vista and 7 compared the decrease in price between Leopard and SL".

quote:

Originally posted by Bioran23:

quote:

Originally posted by gekigangerv:I was hoping that Apple's pricing of Snow Leopard would've driven these prices down even farther.

Except the Snow Leopard pricing is only applicable to Leopard upgrades.

The issues I have with that idea are:

No "full price" package was announced, the only price apart from $29/$49 is for a pack containing not just SL but also iLife and iWork.

Furthermore apart from the $10 "you bought a mac within 3 months of release" DVDs, all Apple retail DVDs are complete installs, how would they handle "leopard upgrade only" on a fresh install? Require that you put your Leopard DVD during the install? That might not go so well

quote:

Originally posted by Bioran23:Otherwise you'll probably have to purchase the full upgrade price along with a Macintosh machine, which combined costs a lot more then a copy of Windows 7, Upgrade or Retail.

Apple should be giving Snow Lepord out at a lower price. It makes buying there higher priced computers seam more of a value. After all they make a profit on the combined price of there software and hardware. Microsoft only makes money on the operating systems.

This is exactly what I've been saying for while now. Microsoft is going to drop the prices so low, that more people will want to switch. Microsoft has never been this aggressive in pricing before. And with more and more poeple still wanting to hold on to their XP installations and being able to downgrade; they can't have a 10year old Operating System out pacing their flagship [new] Operating System. It's humiliating.

I've yet to find any usefulness or humor in the flavors of Windows; it's completely asinine. What moron came up with this idea.

Everyone knows that the poor souls that bought Vista Ultimate didn't get the bonus features they were promised; so why bother?

So if they have to drop the price to make it more attractive... yeah they're going to do it.

The pre-order price is for the upgrade version only, not full version. From the Windows website -

"Windows 7 is coming on October 22, 2009. Here's an easy way to get it fast and save a bundle: Pre-order a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49** or a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $99.** That's about half off the estimated retail prices. This offer is available through participating retailers. Pick one below and pre-order today. They'll tell you how to get your copy when Windows 7 is available."

Verdict: Better than Vista, still too high. We all know the actual price anyone pays for Windows is far less than retail, but still. The limited time upgrade pricing should be THE pricing, period. Microsoft should be encouraging all Windows users (especially the XP die hards) to upgrade to 7, and this pricing unfortunately doesn't do much in this regard.

I guess I'll get the $50 upgrade. It should be free since Vista was shit and I never used it, but I guess I'll be legal just in case I end up needing it (Vista pushed me to linux in April 08).

If you had such a low opinion of Vista, why are you even considering 7? I doubt if you would find enough improvements over Vista to justify spending even $50. 7 is really just a point upgrade over Vista... There aren't that many differences between the two.

I guess I'll get the $50 upgrade. It should be free since Vista was shit and I never used it, but I guess I'll be legal just in case I end up needing it (Vista pushed me to linux in April 08).

If you had such a low opinion of Vista, why are you even considering 7? I doubt if you would find enough improvements over Vista to justify spending even $50. 7 is really just a point upgrade over Vista... There aren't that many differences between the two.

Originally posted by gekigangerv:I was hoping that Apple's pricing of Snow Leopard would've driven these prices down even farther.

Why? Windows 7 is a much bigger release than OS X Snow Leopard.

Uh... no it's not.

Uh, it is.

Are you HONESTLY saying the are more people using OS X than Windows?

Are you HONESTLY saying that there are more people that will be buying OS X S.L. than Windows 7?

Who the fuck are you kidding?

Bigger release implies features in the release and therefore more reasons to upgrade. Not that the userbase is bigger. So there wasn't really any need to go nuts. Any Mac user on an Intel machine really should upgrade, because the performance boost is (apparently) quite significant.

Objectively speaking, Snow Leopard offers more radical 'under-the-bonnet' changes than Windows 7, although the performance increase going from Vista to Win7 is probably about the same as going from Leopard to Snow Leopard, but for very different reasons.

"Microsoft has not touched the pricing for the Professional edition (previously called the Business edition). This might be attributed to the fact that in Windows 7, every edition is a superset to the previous one."

The pricing choices are more likely to be driven by Microsoft perceptions of price sensitivity and competition in the different market segments. The reality in the business segment is that Microsoft has little competition for Windows and a history of low pricing relative to other providers of business software. The added features to the business version probably add no value for the core of the market segment. What they do is make it easier for consumers to choose to spend a little more on the business edition if they want the added flexibility of some of the business features without giving up Media Center and the other consumer oriented features. I might easily fall in that class.On the other hand, the real news is the agressive marketing of Home Premium. Clearly Microsoft is using a range of marketing strategies including pricing and advertising in an effort to position Windows more strongly against Apple in the consumer segment. The low introductory pricing should build on the relatively favorable perceptions of Windows 7 to build a wave of excitement around the launch. It is not likely to be felt by the hard core Apple faithful. But it is likely to help Microsoft build consumer loyalty to the Windows brand.

Honestly, how can anyone be excited about or even be a fan of Windows??? Do they understand how crappy it is? Also, doesn't anybody see that Windows 7 is just a rebranding of Vista, not a real upgrade? For crying out loud, the kernel version for Windows 7 is 6.1, not 7. That's a .1 bump from Vista!